Monday Morning Musing: Famous Former Neighbors

When we lived in Columbus, Ohio we lived in a part of the city called Bexley. Bexley is more than that, though, it is also its own town, sort of a city within a city. It has its own city hall and police force and public services AND it is also served by Columbus city services. It's very confusing. Bexley is also where Trinity Lutheran Seminary at Capital University has been located for its entire history, there on the corner of College and Main streets.

Bruce and I lived a block off of Main Street, so we could walk to the library on the corner and our favorite Turkish restaurant on the opposite corner. We could stroll to the other restaurants, including the one with the best cinnamon roll in Columbus (they won an actual award for that.) The grocer and butcher and drugstore were also just an easy walk away. I walked to work almost every day, too. One of my favorite spots along Main Street (ooooh, the summer Farmer's Market, I almost forgot it!) was the local bookstore, Gramercy Books. I've written about them before. They were next door to the bakery/coffee shop with the cinnamon rolls and the perfect place to spend an hour if I had one to spare.

Eventually I learned that the poet and author Maggie Smith lived one street over from us. I learned this in the bookstore, because she could often be found there, sometimes in an official capacity like a book signing, and sometimes doing the exact same things the rest of us were doing: perusing the shelves with hands that smelled of cinnamon and icing.

Slight birdwalk: On her Substack, Maggie Smith will often write about her life in Bexley and oh my, does it make me long for our old neighborhood. There is really and truly no place like it.

Anyway, I've often found that some of the greatest wisdom and comfort and whatever-I-need can be found in a bookstore. Usually in the Children's section. Bruce knows that if we are in a bookshop and he can't find me, I'm probably the awkward adult with my body squeezed into a tiny chair in the kid's aisle.

Oooh, another birdwalk: On Saturday we were in Seabrook, WA and their local bookshop had the cutest children's section!

Last Monday I wrote about how restless my sleep has been. That's exactly the right word rest-less. As I've thought about this, I opened again Maggie Smith's glorious book for children called My Thoughts Have Wings. I won't quote the entire book for you, but I hope the next time you're in a bookshop you'll go to the children's section and find a copy. Have a look. Squeeze your adult body into a kid sized chair. Maybe even take the book home (after you buy it, of course!). My home library has long contained a whole lot of children's books. Some of the best truths are found in them.

Like these:

Sometimes when I go to bed, my body is calm and still, but my mind feels busy and loud!

Oh, child in the book, don't I know it. And then, after some other precious pages, her mother says:

Thoughts are like birds, some fly ways quickly but others build nests in our heads. Your head is such a beautiful place to live, more beautiful than any tree. No wonder your thoughts don't want to fly away from you! Everyone worries....we need to make sure there's room for the happy thoughts to build their nests.

I bought my copy of this book at Parnassus Books in Nashville (I've also written about them too) and to my delight, it's a signed copy! And Maggie Smith didn't just sign her name, she added this wish: sweet dreams. Oh, yes, to have sweet dreams we do need to make sure there's room for the happy thoughts to build their nests. Instead of rehashing the terrible things that have happened or that we are afraid of happening, instead of worrying about work or people we love or people who don't like us or the weather or if democracy will withstand the forces pushing against it one more time....in the shadows of night, it's helpful to put all of that aside (I sometimes literally imagine a box to put my worries in) and make room for the happy thoughts to build nests that become the dreams that bring us rest.

It's such a beautiful book.... illustrations by Leanne Hatch.